Piet Christiaan Leonardus de Jong was born in
Leeds, England on 8 August 1887. His father, Jacques Leonardus de Jong, was a Dutch immigrant, and his mother, Rosa Teale de Jong, a Yorkshire native. Piet had two siblings: an older half-sister, Gwendolyn (b. 1880), and a younger brother, Arton Carl (b. 1893). For his education, he first attended the
Leeds Modern School. Piet later attended the
Leeds Institute of Science, Art, and Literature, where he studied architecture. After completing his studies, de Jong won several architectural prizes, including two from the West Yorkshire Society of Architects (prize in 1908, silver medal 1909). In 1912, Piet de Jong received the Soane Medallion which included a travel award of £50 from the
Royal Institute of British Architects. With this prize money, he was able to travel to Italy in 1912 to study
Classical architecture. In 1913, he returned to London as a member of the Leeds architectural firm Schofield and Berry. Also in 1913, de Jong designed his first and only building in England: the
First Church of Christ Scientist, Leeds. In 1914,
World War I broke out, and in 1916 he joined the army as a lance-corporal in the
Army Cyclist Corps. Although the precise details of his participation in World War I are unknown, he most likely served as part of the
East Riding Yeomanry. Piet de Jong first travelled to
Greece in 1919 as part of the post-war reconstruction programme for eastern
Macedonia. At this time he first met the excavator of
Mycenae,
Alan Wace. In 1920, de Jong began work as an architect and archaeological illustrator for the Mycenae excavations. He worked on the Mycenae excavations until 1923, during which time he produced the famous reconstruction of
Grave Circle A, Mycenae. From the 1920s to the 1950s, de Jong applied his skills as architect and artist to the illustration, recording, and reconstruction of some of the most famous excavations in Mediterranean archaeology. In 1921, he worked for the excavations at
Halae, under Hetty Goldman. Also in 1921, on 14 February, Piet de Jong married his wife Effie. At the time of her marriage, Effie was living in
Athens and working as an English teacher. She accompanied Piet de Jong on many of his archaeological projects. His work at Mycenae earned him a positive reputation and in 1922, he was hired by Sir
Arthur Evans to work on the recording and reconstruction of the palace at
Knossos on Crete. In the role of excavation architect, de Jong succeeded
Theodore Fyfe (architect at Knossos from 1900-1904) and
Christian C.T. Doll, expanding considerably on their earlier reconstruction interventions. Unlike Fyfe and Doll, de Jong was the first Knossos architect who lived in Greece year round. In 1923, de Jong was the first person appointed as the official architect for the
British School at Athens. Many of the publications of archaeological finds produced by the British School during this period include plans, plates, and drawings by de Jong. From 1923 to 1926, de Jong worked at Sparta, and in 1924 at Eutresis. During the 1920s, he also worked at Zygouries, excavated by
Carl Blegen, and at
Corinth, under both Bert Hodge Hill and Leslie Shear. Piet de Jong returned to
Crete every year from 1922 to 1930. During this time, he designed and directed much of the reconstruction work at
Knossos. This work included both architectural reconstruction (especially the Queen's Megaron and
Throne Room), and frescos (the dolphin fresco). In the 1930s, de Jong produced drawings for the archaeological excavations at
Perachora and Prosymna, and in 1932 began work as illustrator for the excavations at the
Athenian Agora. The events of
World War II forced de Jong to return to Leeds from 1939 to 1947. In 1947, de Jong returned to
Crete as the curator of
Knossos. The
Knossos excavations were now directed by
Sinclair Hood, who continued to employ de Jong in the recording and reconstruction of the
Knossos material. In 1952, de Jong relinquished his post as Knossos caretaker, but continued to produce watercolours and reconstructions both at Knossos (1957–61), and for a number of other archaeological projects. In 1957, he produced watercolour reconstructions of the fresco paintings from the so-called 'Painted House' at
Gordion. Around the same time, de Jong also produced the plates for the material excavated by
John Caskey at Kea. Until 1965, de Jong worked again for
Carl Blegen at
Pylos, where he produced his famous reconstructions of both the Palace of Nestor and its ornate floor. His final archaeological assignment, the watercolour reproduction of several
Minoan frescos, began on Crete in 1966. While still in Crete and at work on these frescos, Piet de Jong died on 20 April 1967 at the age of 79. A bequest left by de Jong to the British School at Athens made possible the extension of the
Stratigraphic Museum at Knossos. Forty-four de Jong
caricatures, also in watercolour, have been published. The majority of the subjects for these paintings were archaeologists from the excavations for which de Jong worked as architect. Some of the more famous of his scholarly subjects include Sir
Arthur Evans, excavator of Knossos, and
Alan Wace, excavator of Mycenae. Other caricatures feature students and other '
hellenophiles' living in Athens, associated with either the
American School of Classical Studies at Athens or the
British School at Athens. In his will, de Jong bequeathed his personal caricatures and other watercolours to Minoan archaeologist Sinclair Hood; these artworks have been held in archives of the
Ashmolean Museum since 2003. ==References==